Explainer: How the US plans to revoke passports over unpaid child support

The Trump administration is set to expand enforcement of a long-standing law that allows the US government to revoke passports of parents who owe significant amounts of child support, The Associated Press reported, citing officials.

Under a 1996 federal law, American passports can be denied or revoked for individuals who owe more than $2,500 in unpaid child support. However, the State Department has traditionally enforced this only when a person applied for passport renewal or sought other consular services, meaning action was triggered only when the individual approached the department.

That is set to change. The State Department will soon begin revoking passports on its own initiative, using data shared by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), according to the officials who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity. The number of people who could be affected is not immediately known. The rollout will happen in stages.

The first group to be targeted will be individuals who owe more than $100,000 in past-due child support. One official told AP that fewer than 500 people currently fall into this category and that they may avoid having their passports revoked if they enter into a payment plan with HHS after receiving notice.

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The same official said that if the threshold is later lowered, the number of affected individuals would rise significantly. However, no timeline has been given for when that might happen, and officials could not estimate how many people could eventually lose their passports.

In an emailed response to AP, the State Department said it "is reviewing options to enforce long-standing law to prevent those owing substantial amounts of child support from neglecting their legal and moral obligations to their children."

According to the Office of Child Support Enforcement at HHS, the Passport Denial Program has collected nearly $621 million in overdue child support since it began following the 1996 passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, including nine individual collections of more than $300,000. HHS did not respond to AP’s questions about how many people are currently in arrears.

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